Welcoming transfer students

[skribs]

I tell my Senior students when They teach something to a lower rank they should think about how I taught them because the methodology has been tested and evolved over the decades for efficient teaching and learning. Then, if they think they have a better way to run it by me so we can analyze and discuss it.

My planned philosophy is that instructors should teach beginners the way I teach them for consistency. But at the advanced level, diversity of thought leads to greater understanding.

 

[Earl Weiss]

My planned philosophy is that instructors should teach beginners the way I teach them for consistency. But at the advanced level, diversity of thought leads to greater understanding.

The key is implementing variety at the appropriate level.

"Even a thirsty man can't drink from a firehose. "

 

[HighKick]

The "KKW curriculum" that we didn't do is 8 forms. 8 forms which my old school was phasing in. And they don't take that long to learn. The majority of what I struggled with was in-house stuff and the chaotic way in which he ordered things.

It also doesn't take someone knowing a specific curriculum to be able to teach things. My BJJ school has asked me to teach spin kicks in the Muay Thai class, despite me being very new to Muay Thai.

I didn't get to actually judge tests, but I sat on the judge's panel at this school's testing. It doesn't take me knowing the KKW curriculum to know that the vast majority of his students were incredibly sloppy, and he had virtually 0 quality control (except if they completely forgot the moves).

And, when he called me and one of his students up and asked us to demonstrate a back kick, the other student was "good", but I was "correct", because my back kick was closer to what he was looking for.

I think much of this would be person specific. I would not want a person to teach a spinning side kick (or anything else) if they could not do it correctly. themselves, even though they had been working on the kick from their previous style. Then there is the question of being able to teach the kick. There are Tons of people who can do something really, really well but could not teach it to someone else, even if their life depended on it.

 

[drop bear]

By the way. The biggest hurdle for transfer students is to get over the mental block that they might be better than you.

They might.

It is a good thing for a school if they are.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

By the way. The biggest hurdle for transfer students is to get over the mental block that they might be better than you.

They might.

It is a good thing for a school if they are.

I haven't had that issue with head instructors, but have with 'senior students'. The one's who have been training 5+ years. They have this need to prove that they're not being outdone by the new guy.

They either go way harder in sparring than they do against others, or during drilling they'll purposefully fight the drill, and try to coach on how to do it right (which they then fight).

Ultimately not the worst thing in the world, and things eventually even out. BUt something to watch out for as the owner - you don't want to lose a good prospective student because your higher-ups have an ego.

 

[skribs]

I haven't had that issue with head instructors, but have with 'senior students'. The one's who have been training 5+ years. They have this need to prove that they're not being outdone by the new guy.

I had this happen. I had a few stripes on his white belt. We had a brand new guy, friends with a blue belt. Professor asks me to "roll" with him, just show him some positions and give him some ideas. So I start in guard, show him a pass, then I recover guard. Do that a few times, then I sweep, then pass. Show him how to recover guard. We do that a few times. Then, with about 30 seconds on the clock, he just grabs my lapels and yanks a cross-collar. It was a horrible one (it was all collar) but it was sunk before I realized it was coming and I tapped.

My lizard brain went, I can't let Professor be embarassed. I have to show these stripes mean something. I started with closed guard again. With 22 seconds left, I had taken his back and sunk a RNC. That was the first time I had ever "turned it on" in a roll, and it felt so satisfying.

They either go way harder in sparring than they do against others, or during drilling they'll purposefully fight the drill, and try to coach on how to do it right (which they then fight).

There's a blue belt at my BJJ gym who does this. He's been there as long as I have, but I've been to probably 10x the classes he has in that time. He has a tendency to do this during drills. Either:

A) I will be halfway through a technique and he'll tell me "Bruh, you're doing it wrong, call coach over." (In which case coach will just tell me to do the next step).

B) He will be a bad uke. For example, if I'm supposed to grab a leg, he'll stretch it way out so I can't reach it. In a live roll, I would simply do another technique that takes advantage of where his weight is, but it makes it impossible to drill this technique. Then he says, "Bruh, you're doing it wrong, let me show you." So I do the same thing to him he did to me. "Bruh, what are you doing?"

"Same thing you did to me."

Funny thing is I don't think I've seen him since then.

 

[HighKick]

Eliminating the curriculum has been a part of the plan before I started this particular endeavor (making my school welcome for transfer students).

An example I used in another thread is the way my school did Hapkido, vs. how I would do it. A simple example would be a curriculum with 25 techniques for white belts, which includes:

1. Defend cross grab with a scissor chop into Figure-4 lock
2. Defend cross grab with a swim move into Figure-4 lock
3. Defend two-on-one grab with a swim move into Figure-4 lock
4. Defend straight grab with a duck-under into Figure-4 lock
5. Defend double grab with a duck-under into Figure-4 lock
6. Defend cross grab with a duck-under pass-off into Figure 4 lock
7. Defend cross grab with a swim move into elbow lock
8. Defend two-on-one grab with a swim move into elbow lock
9. Defend straight grab with a pass-off into elbow lock
10. Defend double grab with a pass-off into elbow lock
11. Defend cross grab with an inside spin move into giftwrap take-down
12. Defend straight grab with an inside spin move into giftwrap take-down
13. Defend straight grab with an outside spin move into giftwrap take-down
14. Defend two-on-one grab with an inside spin move into giftwrap take-down
15. Defend double grab with an inside spin move into giftwrap take-down
16. Defend cross grab with a v-lock
17. Defend two-on-one grab with a v-lock
18. Defend straight grab with a pass-off into v-lock
19. Defend double grab with a pass-off into v-lock
20. Defend cross grab with a z-lock
21. Defend two-on-one grab with a z-lock
22. Defend straight grab with a z-lock
23. Defend double straight grab with a z-lock
24. Defend straight grab with a z-lock into a figure-4 lock
25. Defend straight grab with a z-lock into elbow lock

The way this kind of curriculum works is my Master would say "Do white belt #22", and you have to tell your uke to do a straight grab, and then do the technique. If you said the wrong grab, minus points on the test. If you did a z-lock instead of a v-lock, minus points on the test. And they usually had a specific finisher, if you used the wrong finisher, minus points.

Instead, I'd rather teach where the same ideas are taught like this:

• The four main grabs are cross, straight, double, and two-on-one
• White belt techniques are the Figure-4 lock, elbow lock, giftwrap, v-lock, and z-lock
• Common entries from the grabs into the positions are swim move, duck under, pass-off, and inside spin move. Sometimes we'll use a different entry.

In my Master's curriculum, we would always just do #1-#25. In my style, we could say:

• Today we're doing all the moves from a cross grab.
• Today we're doing different grabs and entries for the giftwrap.
• Today we're focusing on transitions from the z-lock.

It's the same stuff, but with a much more flexible approach.

I was reading back through the thread, and this really jumped out at me. Why the transfer comes to your specific school is a Huge factor.
Sometimes it is a kid(s) that got relocated when their parents moved for work. Or a stop-start student. In either case, it is important for you to have Your curriculum and not try to integrate what they may have previously done. It would just be confusing. Yes, there will be some 'shadow' of their previous work, engraining is hard to get rid of and Not a bad thing.
Another not too uncommon transfer is the experienced person looking for something different. While there is commonality in almost all styles, they need to know you have a structured curriculum that they can learn from, not the other way around. Else, why would they be interested in coming to your school at all? Absolutely talk about differences and the pros/cons, but don't feel compelled to integrate something into your curriculum just because a new student comes in doing it. That would be way too frenetic for an instructor/school owner.